The show starts on Thursday and we’re hoping it will be as busy as ever: over 100,000 visitors last year!  It is a little different in the hotel this year because the show is a week later due to the bank holiday slipping back a week but there is still a major golf tournament on locally and we have a big contingent staying here for that too so quite a different mix of business.

The golfers go on Friday morning so we do have rooms available for Friday and Saturday whereas normally the show people go on the Saturday morning and we end up with rooms just for that night which are much harder to  sell.  We will see how we go this year!

I am hoping the show itself will be as interesting as usual, one of our regular clients isn’t here again this year but the supplier list looks good.  We are looking at having a stand to sell the group hotels next year and the plan is for Amy to visit and do some research on stand sizes and locations etc.  As she has just hobbled back in today after completing the Plymouth half marathon last week I’m not sure if that is going to be a good idea!

Amy’s run is another story which I will see if we can get on the facebook page but I must say that Amy has had a few days holiday after, it hasn’t taken her over a week to complete the run.

I’ve just been asked if I would be happy to host a hustings evening on the 9th of April for the local Padstow residents to grill the candidates for the forthcoming election.  Naturally I jumped at the chance to host a prestigious event like this, it will be very exciting to be involved with such an important part of our democratic process.  Jill Hagley who is organising the event on behalf of Padstow Area Business and Tourism Forum (PATBF) has told me that Dan Rogerson the sitting MP and Sian Flynn the primary challenger have already confirmed they would be happy to attend so it promises to be a lively evening!

There will be more information here, on our Facebook page and on Twitter as we have it.

This usually involves rushing around on the Saturday afternoon getting a few statistics together to put a quick overview in place and then creating a few ideas and suggestions what we will and won’t be doing in the next month or two.  Today I’ve been trying to do a bit more so I’m further ahead of the game come Tuesday morning!

Amy went to a course as part of her ILM / UCP project on Tuesday and one of the things they looked at there was Ansoff Matrices - dissecting the sales effort into different sectors so you do the right things for the right people.  I thought this would be a good idea to look at ahead of next week’s meeting so did some web research and started putting my matrix together (to be compared with Amy’s later).  As part of this I’ve found some fascinating information on different areas to look at, both to encourage people back and to find new people.  A large part of this was on social networking so Amy will be looking at Twitter and Facebook shortly, I thought I’d have a look at Flickr - the photo sharing site.

I have set up an account for the hotel and have put a few pictures on there, more to follow later - we’ve got loads we can use!  Have a look at the album here and let us know what you think - there’s space for comments!  If you want to add your own pictures please do.

will be on Friday 26th February in conjunction with Wadebridge Wines.  At the moment details are limited but it will be a very special evening and limited to just 18 guests.  More information will be forthcoming once Tamsin returns from a buying trip to Italy.  The wines will be Australian and from Barossa Valley with the main theme being Shiraz.  I’m really looking forward to the evening and seeing what dishes we can match with what promises to be some very exciting wines.

If you would like to receive information about this do please e mail us and let us know.  Rooms will be available!

As I am sure you would expect we all want to make The Metropole a better place and we, along with Andrea at The Fowey, have been tasked with increasing our quality scores from the AA.  Part of our work has been talking to other owners and managers of four star hotels in Cornwall to see what they do and how they run their businesses.

We had our first two visits on Tuesday, we really couldn’t have picked a worse day with the rain lashing down on us.  While the weather was cold the welcome we had from Toby at The Nare and Peter at Carlyon Bay was warm and very helpful.  Some people might think it a little odd for competitors to share information like this but apart from being in different markets, we all want to see the quality of hotels in Cornwall improve as this helps us all. We got a very different perspective from both gentlemen but all was very useful, I hope you will see the results in our hotels over the coming months.
There are now something like 12 four star hotels in the Duchy so we can really go out and sell Cornwall as a high quality destination.  Malcom Bell has taken over the reins at Visit Cornwall and we are expecting great things from him.  We’re also very prepared to work with him to help him deliver his goals of increased visitors and an increase in the value this brings into the county.

Never has a harvest festival hymn been more relevant than this year I feel!  The weather the last couple of weeks has not been the best with weather warnings galore and some pretty strong winds around.  Despite being the biggest and most exposed building in Padstow we have escaped and serious damage and once people have arrived at The Met they are greeted by a friendly smiling face in reception and a glowing real fire in the hallway.

This really is an exciting time to come to Cornwall - there is so much less traffic around and it is amazing how many local residents will take time out to go and sit on the cliffs or by the beaches just to sit and watch the waves crash in.  I think there is something special about storm watching from the  security of your car!  In Padstow we are a very safe mile inland so don’t get the big waves coming near us that some of our other hotels do but the views across to Polzeath are great when the surf is lashing the rocks.  Have a look at our web cam for the latest conditions!

No, not for Wallace and Grommit but a new blue cheese to us.  Tom from Hanson’s Fine Foods has found a new creamy blue cheese called Blue Horizon which Adam is now putting on our cheese plates.  It is quite a different style from the Cornish Blue and when it has ripened will be quite strongly flavoured as well as soft and creamy.  I hadn’t realised there are only two blue cheeses made in Cornwall and it is great that we have them both - another first for Adam and his team!

We’ve known of Padstow’s literary fame in connection with the novelist Rosamund Pilcher which has primarily centred on Prideaux Place but I heard the other day of another connection.  I may be stretching things a bit by describing it as “literary” but Padstow and specifically The Met are a large part of “The Power” by Colin Forbes!

A guest staying with us had bought a few books from a charity shop to read while she was here and suddenly found herself reading about the hotel she was staying in.  This is one of Forbes books that I haven’t read so I think I will have to search it out and get my own copy.

We had the de-brief from this years swim today and thankfully it was fairly brief as all went so well!  The two main items of news to report are the total raised and the provisional date for next year:

Total raised so far - a record £16,200!  A big thank you to all who have swum, sponsored and otherwise donated to this great cause.

Next year’s date - subject to getting use of the estuary for the afternoon - is Saturday 24th July 2010.

The message from the organising committee is that we could not have done this without the help of all those involved from the canoe clubs to the sailing club, Rob, the Harbour Master, who is responsible for everything that happens on his patch of water and all the river users who take a day off and lend us their boats.

I received an e mail today from our friends at Cornwall Sustainable Tourism (Coast) about the growing problem of rubbish in the sea.  With such a high coastline to hinterland ratio and also with so much of our economy depending on the sea this is something I feel strongly about.  If you have time do please look at the Surfers Against Sewage website and also the SAS petition to try and do something about it.

As well as organising the petition both COAST and SAS do carry out practical events to keep our coast and coutryside clean.